Yes - with your account number someone could theoretically drain your account using direct debit. In practice that never happens (and most people don't keep the

Yes - with your account number someone could theoretically drain your account using direct debit. In practice that never happens (and most people don't keep their account number a secret). In addition, even if it would happen you have more than plenty of time to reverse the transaction at your bank (which shouldn't involve any discussion or so with the bank). As for transactions themselves, unlike in the US where you can conduct ACH transactions in both directions (i.e., debiting another account) IBAN transactions are "sending only" (like email). And you typically also don't need to whitelist/add another account first (as in the case of ACH transactions), but just type the senders account number into the recipient field (again, like email). In Europe I never used any third party services, as IBAN transactions are usually free and the easiest thing to do. In the US it's usually easier to use something like Dwolla (or even checks!) if you want to send money to someone.